There are a few ways to catch up for House of Cards season 5, which comes to Netflix on the 30th of May. You could rewatch all of season 4, which would take a long time. Or you could read this short refresher.

You could also scroll through Twitter and watch the news. It's all but certain that the House of Cards writers will be riffing on current events. In season 5, President Underwood is taking his first tentative steps into autocracy. It’s up to you which version of Washington you think is scarier: House of Cards’, or the real life one.

Since there are so many plotlines, we’ve distilled the most important points to remember from each.